Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Pen stopped working properly

[Sheena Schoebel]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to find out how to fix my S Pen on my Note 8. It can still scroll through pages, kind of, but my phone isn't even registering it once it is clicked in. When I look at the settings for the S Pen it says that the last time it was detached was 4/10/19. So it seems like my phone stopped registering it, or the pen stopped working at that time. As far as settings go for the S Pen, Air view is on, direct pen input is on, and Pointer is on. I have restarted my phone. I don't know if it's the S pen or my pen port in my phone. Any suggestions besides factory reset? I read something online about resetting the pen itself, but it seems like that is only for the 9 and up. Not the Note 8, as I can't find it in any of my settings. Any advice, input, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!


To answer everyone below:

-Yes, all features are turned on. I do not have another Note to test the pen on.
-No, I did not update to Pie on April 10th
-I will try toggling all options and restarting again, then turning options back on to see if that helps.
-Not sure if the Note 9 pen is interchangeable, I'll have to double check that. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[Ms Charli]

Is direct pen input feature turned on?
Is the pointer turned on?
Are you using a magnetic case?
Have you or can you test your pen in another Note to see that it does work?

 

[Forgewizard]

Did you update to Pie on April 10th?

 

[Forgewizard]

Did you update to Pie on April 10th?

You might try toggling all S-pen features and options to off, restart phone twice. Then turn features you want back on and restart the phone again.

 

[donm527]

Go to a Best Buy and test your pen on a Note 9 and see if it registers it. If works then test a Note 9 pen on your 8 and see if it detects it. Note 8 pen will work on the Note 9 and I believe a 9 pen will work on the 8 except for the newer features.

 

[Sheena Schoebel]

I just followed Forgewizard's advice and the pen is still not working. I turned everything off, restarted twice, turned everything back on, and restarted again. No change. Now, after I made this post yesterday my phone alerted me that my s pen was too far away. Though the pen was still inside the phone. Not sure if that adds any useful info or not.

 

[mustang7757]

I just followed Forgewizard's advice and the pen is still not working. I turned everything off, restarted twice, turned everything back on, and restarted again. No change. Now, after I made this post yesterday my phone alerted me that my s pen was too far away. Though the pen was still inside the phone. Not sure if that adds any useful info or not.

If you long press the spen in the notifications pull down panel , what options are there?
Does it have reset spen or 3 dots in corner for more settings?

 

[Sheena Schoebel]

If you long press the spen in the notifications pull down panel , what options are there?
Does it have reset spen or 3 dots in corner for more settings?

I'm not sure what you mean by longpressing the S pen in the notifications pull down menu, I don't see anything about the S pen there. I took some screenshots for you, maybe it will make more sense if you can see what I do. I have not found an option to reset the S pen so far. Let me know if this helps, and thanks.

Here is my notification drop down menu

Here is the top portion of the S pen settings page

And here is the bottom portion of the S pen settings page

 

[mustang7757]

I'm not sure what you mean by longpressing the S pen in the notifications pull down menu, I don't see anything about the S pen there. I took some screenshots for you, maybe it will make more sense if you can see what I do. I have not found an option to reset the S pen so far. Let me know if this helps, and thanks.
View attachment 302690
Here is my notification drop down menu
View attachment 302691
Here is the top portion of the S pen settings page
View attachment 302692
And here is the bottom portion of the S pen settings page

Thank you for sharing , just see your on Oreo but thsts ok , the setting there what to do when spen detach why you have it set to nothing?

 

[mustang7757]

I'm not sure what you mean by longpressing the S pen in the notifications pull down menu, I don't see anything about the S pen there. I took some screenshots for you, maybe it will make more sense if you can see what I do. I have not found an option to reset the S pen so far. Let me know if this helps, and thanks.
View attachment 302690
Here is my notification drop down menu
View attachment 302691
Here is the top portion of the S pen settings page
View attachment 302692
And here is the bottom portion of the S pen settings page

Also on the notifications panel can you swipe left with it pull down?

 

[Sheena Schoebel]

Also on the notifications panel can you swipe left with it pull down?

I just got the phone at the end of March with Oreo loaded onto it. Do you think this could be a contributing factor? It worked fine for the first couple weeks. I have it set to do "nothing" when the pen is removed because the options are open air command or write a note. I don't want either of those popping up when I remove the pen, so it's set to nothing. As for the notifications, when the menu is pulled down I cannot swipe left. Or right, for that matter.

 

[mustang7757]

I just got the phone at the end of March with Oreo loaded onto it. Do you think this could be a contributing factor? It worked fine for the first couple weeks. I have it set to do "nothing" when the pen is removed because the options are open air command or write a note. I don't want either of those popping up when I remove the pen, so it's set to nothing. As for the notifications, when the menu is pulled down I cannot swipe left. Or right, for that matter.

No it should still work with Oreo, have you tried clearing cache in recovery but restarting the phone before it starts up hold power and volume up?

 

[Sheena Schoebel]

No it should still work with Oreo, have you tried clearing cache in recovery but restarting the phone before it starts up hold power and volume up?

Alright, I just put it into safe mode and cleared everything. Then after phone was optimized I took it out of safe mode and tried pen. Still no luck. It also gave me the "The S pen is to far away" message again today. Still not sure if this points to the port in the phone, or the pen itself. Any other ideas? Thank you so much for trying to help me figure this out. I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. Lol.

 

[mustang7757]

Alright, I just put it into safe mode and cleared everything. Then after phone was optimized I took it out of safe mode and tried pen. Still no luck. It also gave me the "The S pen is to far away" message again today. Still not sure if this points to the port in the phone, or the pen itself. Any other ideas? Thank you so much for trying to help me figure this out. I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. Lol.

No problem , that's what we are here for to help each other.
Try one more thing not sure if it's going work
You were in recovery before when u cleaned the cache now I want you to go safe mode which I believe u restart your phone and before it boits up hold the volume down until you see the start up screen , see what happens there.

 

[Sheena Schoebel]

No problem , that's what we are here for to help each other.
Try one more thing not sure if it's going work
You were in recovery before when u cleaned the cache now I want you to go safe mode which I believe u restart your phone and before it boits up hold the volume down until you see the start up screen , see what happens there.

Not claiming to be the smartest individual right now. I had put it into safe mode, thinking both safe and recovery mode were the same thing. Sorry! Do you want me to go into recovery mode and do something, or did I ruin that chance?

 

[mustang7757]

Not claiming to be the smartest individual right now. I had put it into safe mode, thinking both safe and recovery mode were the same thing. Sorry! Do you want me to go into recovery mode and do something, or did I ruin that chance?

It's ok , yes go into recovery by restart before it turns on hold voulme up and power button be a breif Android bot then a menu select system cache then reboot.

 

[donm527]

Uh... like I mentioned near the top... tried another pen like a Note 9 pen from a store? It sounds like a bad pen. It should be interchangeble since, even though you can't use the new features from the Note 9 S-pen, they are still based on a Wacom standard so a 9 pen should still function like an 8 pen. I'll try my co-workers 9 pen on mine just to see.

 

[donm527]

Just tried my buddy's banana on my 8. Out of sylo all 8 functions work with the 9 pen. I'm surprised that the pen is actually a hair thicker so it won't go in the sylo so can't test it from lock screen. But at home screen I can double click the button to bring the pen menu on the side.

So if your having function issues using pen, try another pen. But if it's an issue with pen being in sylo, then can't use the 9 pen to test.

 

[Yusydre]

I'm experiencing the same exact issue on my note 8..did you get any of the solutions to work?